Senators In A Stormy Session With Finance Minister, CBN Governor, Others On Attempts To Undermine Senate

Senators In A Stormy Session With Finance Minister, CBN Governor, Others On Attempts To Undermine Senate

Anger rose in the Senate today as more senators reacted to the continued posture of the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) Mr Cardoso ,the minister of Finance Mr Wale Edu , other government appointees to deliberately undermine the Senate and their refusal to submit to the oversight responsibilities of the lawmakers .

The senators at a meeting today with the finance minister , the CBN governor and other head of government agencies also lamented the refusal of some of the ministers and heads of government agencies to obey senate resolutions and their flagrant breach of the laws including extra budgetary expenditures.
Senators at the meeting organised by the Senate Committee on banking and Finance specifically to engage the the finance, the CBN governor and others on the dwindling nations economy took their turns to cite several instances of outright neglect of Senate resolution and invitation by some of the head of government agencies .

According to the lawmakers at the session ,” some of the appointees have refused to open their financial books for the Senate committees saddled with the responsibility of oversighting them or have refused to see the Senate approval to spend tax payers money .
The storming session is coming barely 48 hours after the Senate Committee on gas had raised the issue of lack of transparency by the handlers of the Presidential CNG Funds and their refusal to submit to the oversight of the Senate . The committee had earlier asked the finance minister to furnish it with details of the award and disbursement of over N100billion CNG fund

Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking & Currency, Sen Tokunbo Abiru at the meeting accused the CBN of undermining the Senate Committee, by refusing to furnish the Senate with relevant documents requested from the CBN Governor, such as the Audited Reports and the CBN Budget.

Senator Sani Musa questioned the Minister Of Finance on the loan of $3.3 billion dollars to cushion the effect of the rise in the value of the dollar against the naira. He said the Government cannot sell our crude oil in advance and take a loan that cannot resolve our issues as a Country. .
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of the APC also expressed the displeasure of the Senate over the attempt of Government functionaries to undermine the Senate. He told the CBN Governor that he must submit to the oversight function of the Senate Committee on Banking & Currency.